George Michael and Elton John leave Westminster Abbey after the Princess's funeral service. (JOHNNY EGGITT/AFP/Getty Images)

As the world remembers the tragic death of the Princess of Wales 20 years ago, data confirms that a tribute record to her remains the best-selling chart single of all time.

“Candle in the Wind 1997” by Elton John has sold more than 33 million copies worldwide. While Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” sold more, that was released in 1942, a decade before charts began. The John record has sold 4.9 million copies to date in the U.K., according information released this week by the British Official Charts Company. Proceeds go towards Princess Diana’s charities.

The song was co-written with Bernie Taupin as a remodeling of the pair’s “Candle In The Wind” from 1973 about the actress Marilyn Monroe, who also died after years of media intrusion. The Princess died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. John, one of her close friends, performed an emotional version of the new composition at her funeral. He was knighted the following year.

The new version was a U.S. chart-topper, John’s ninth. Still, the song, produced by Sir George Martin, had its biggest success sin Britain, selling 658,000 copies in its first charting week and 1.54 million in its second.

The success may never be repeated because it was achieved mainly from the physical copies of the single. It became available for download in 2007 and has sold a relatively modest 27,000 in this form. As a stream since 2015 it has only picked up 68,000. Sir Elton has not performed it again in public and while many physical copies were made and sold, they can command premium sums in Internet sales with no repressings available.

Few singles in the 21st century have come close to matching the total global sales of the biggest songs of the last – with Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” from 2013 known to be one of the few.

Sir George Martin with the instrumental score and BPI sales award for Candle in the Wind '97 (Photo SILKE LOHMANN/AFP/Getty Images)